Comments on: And meanwhile in Troy…http://blog.timesunion.com/gettingthere/and-meanwhile-in-troy/87/
Covering transportation in the Capital Region and beyondWed, 19 Jul 2017 11:33:42 +0000hourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.7.5By: Tim in Waterfordhttp://blog.timesunion.com/gettingthere/and-meanwhile-in-troy/87/#comment-459
Mon, 03 Nov 2008 18:31:46 +0000http://blogs.timesunion.com/crossroads/?p=87#comment-459I recall reading somewhere that the Hoosick St. Bridge/Collar City Bridge was supposed to carry a planned extension of I-88 out to New Hampshire. Of course, the extension never happened and they ended up using the money to build Alternate 7. (Similarly, the Bennington Bypass was built on land that had originally been graded in anticipation of I-88.) I don’t know how they would’ve routed I-88 through Troy, and to be honest, I wonder what effect it would have had on the city.
]]>By: Laurence Hhttp://blog.timesunion.com/gettingthere/and-meanwhile-in-troy/87/#comment-458
Sat, 01 Nov 2008 09:26:01 +0000http://blogs.timesunion.com/crossroads/?p=87#comment-458I believe that the original proposal was to have the bridge empty at the top of the Hoosick St Hill. I believe that NY State had surveyed and actually purchased a strip of land to move Route 7 more to the south and having it merge with Route 2 somewhere east of Center Brunswick.
I don’t know if this is true or was a rumor. But just think what that would have done to Troy.
]]>By: Duncan Craryhttp://blog.timesunion.com/gettingthere/and-meanwhile-in-troy/87/#comment-457
Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:53:58 +0000http://blogs.timesunion.com/crossroads/?p=87#comment-457I host a weekly podcast with James Howard Kunstler, who is a Saratoga resident and author of “The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America’s Man-Made Landscape.”

The very first episode of the “KunstlerCast” was about drugstores. I asked Jim why the drugstore companies slap up their disposable architecture on practically every street corner in America.

Kunstler’s point is that we often get into the wrong argument over these drugstores. It’s not the drugstore business that is the main problem. It’s the fact that the companies building these drugstores are slapping up useless, one-story, anti-urban structures with a 20-year design life.

He calls the business the “programming” and the building the “container.” And he says that we need to focus on the container, not the programming.

Many of the drugstore businesses tank (sometimes because at least one of the other three drugstores on opposing corners is doing better business) and what we are left with is a useless throwaway building that cannot be retrofitted into something useful.

The best strategy we have in dealing with these drugstore companies is to demand that they either retrofit an existing structure (like the CVS occupying the Frear’s Cash Bazaar in downtown Troy) or we insist that they construct a multi-story, mixed-use building with a design life of more than 20 years. We must also insist that these companies build the structure flush with the sidewalk. If they must build a parking lot, it must be behind the building so as not to disrupt the streetscape.

If we can achieve that, then when the drugstore goes out of business, the community will be left with something valuable: a good building. Maybe a local business can move in and take its place.

Multi-story and mixed use are key ingredients to a successful building. Historically, affordable housing was delivered in the form of apartments above first-story retail. It was only after we abandoned mixed-use buildings and started building one-story America, that we were required to provide an artificial commodity that we call “affordable housing.” Affordable housing used to exist organically, and we didn’t have to put much thought into it.